Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 32 minutes ago

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Past Due track 02. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_past_due
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[book: Crystal Singer series, Anne McCaffrey]

Lyrics:

The whirlwind of the morning air harmoniously sighs
And echoes from the facets of the cliffs into the skies
We singers of the crystal must begin another day
Forgetting all the beauty in our need to make it pay

The sled may lift us far above the walls of crystal stone
And we may not remember all the claims we've called our own—
But now we fly and now we sing and listen for the sound
Of crystal veins that sing reply from cold and barren ground

Though I have flown a thousand miles and still must fly as far
I now recall the place I found my pure black crystal spar!
My comp reminds me as I fly of things that I must do
And warns me of the dangers that may keep me from my due

Suddenly the bells ring out, the whine assails my ears
A sonic storm is moving in—sled, get me out of here!
The skies light up, the blasts of wind are rising to a peak
And every passing moment takes me from the black I seek

Racing the wind, running from the storm,
Escaping from the violence to a shelter safe and warm
The storm moves ever faster, and ever louder calls
The sled gives out an anguished cry as to the storm it falls

I waken to the howl of wind resounding in my ears
The nurse the Guild provides for me stands forth to dry my tears
She cannot understand my weeping or the reason why—
I have forgotten once again where my black crystals lie

We singers of the crystal live for over eightscore years
But you who live a shorter span can never know our fears
Your memories may reach across a gulf ours cannot span—
Remembering makes you the life and me the empty man

The sled may lift us far above the walls of crystal stone
And we may not remember all the things we've called our own—
But now we fly and now we sing and listen for the sound
Of crystal veins that sing reply from cold and barren ground